Thanks to a few people from the Debain community -
new version 3.0 released (see
ChangeLog)
for more info

2003-07-17

Version 2.3 released.

2003-05-22

Version 2.2 released

2002-12-09

Version 2.1 released

2002-03-29

Version 2.0 released

2000-10-25

Version 1.1 released

Mencal is a simple variation of the well-known unix command
cal. The main difference is that you can have some periodically
repeating days highlighted in color. This can be used to track
menstruation (or other) cycles conveniently.

This program is written in the perl language. It also uses the
unix locales and the system commands strftime and mktime.
I don't know which systems have all those, but at least any Linux
distribution should include everything necessary for running
this software.

This software can be distributed and modified freely under the terms of
GPL license.

Hint:Use your computer for superb timing of all your activities

Installation is simple, just unpack the main package, enter the newly created
directory and run it:

$ tar xzf mencal-x.y.tar.gz
$ cd mencal-x.y
$ ./mencal

You can of course place the main file mencal to any directory
where other programs are being installed (sometimes you have to have
the superuser permissions), for example:

# cp mencal /usr/local/bin/

The output of mencal can be influenced using output parameters,
which are similar to parameters of cal:

-m or --monday .. week begins on monday (default sunday)

-1 .. print just current month (default)

-3 .. print previous, current and next month

-y [yyyy] .. print calendar for the whole year yyyy,
if the year is not specified, print current year

There are no known bugs at this moment. Ifcase you find some, please let me know at
mccohy@kyberdigi.cz.

2012-04-12

A wrong day might be highlight if the program is executed on the day, when
daylight saving time is being turned on or off. The computation was like
adding or subtracting 24 hours to current time, which could highlight
a wrong day. Thanks to Holger Mikolon for bug report and solution.Solved: upgrade to version 2.4.

2003-07-17

In some cases of special locales setings the day names are displayed
incorrectly. For example if one uses hu_HU, some day names have only one
character, which can cause table damage. Thank to Peter Gervai for bug
info.Solved: upgrade to version 2.3.

2003-05-22

Micah Anderson wrote about a typo in one of error messages you can see
after bad parameter settings.Solved: upgrade to version 2.2.

2002-12-09

While using the -3 switch for printing of three actual months (i.e.
november, december, january) some month is not printed. Reported by
Jįra Altmann.Solved: upgrade to version 2.1.

2000 - 2003

If using the command more and colored mencal, i. e.
$ mencal -y -c c=red | more .. it all gets messed up.Solved: use more -f or less -R.
hanks to Peter K. Gale for this hint.

Regrettably you can't use years below 1900. The cause is that
perl works with years decremented by 1900. So if you use the
year 2002, perl has to convert it to 102. And it of course
refuses to use negative numbers. If you have any ideas how to work around
this, please let me know.

The names of days and months are taken from locales, so it would probably
be nice to localize the help and program messages. There are not that many
messages, in fact. Well, next time. ;-)

It is impossible to print colored output ($ mencal | lpr), the
output on the paper looks really ugly. Please use non-colored output
if you want to print it on your printer, i. e. $ mencal -n | lpr

Note:There's only a few lines left from 1.0 and the rest was
completely rewritten. The old bugs seem to be gone. The configuration
doesn't become invalid after one year and you don't have to set it up again.
The brain-damage of the old configuration files has also been eliminated.

2013-10-27

Version 3.0

massive code overwrite (Toni Timonen, Sam Hocevar, Matthew Wilcox)

minor fixes and corrections (Scott Barker, Charles Plessy)

2012-04-12

Version 2.4

fixed incorrect computation in days, when daylight saving time
is being turned on or off

2003-07-17

Version 2.3

fixed incorrect displaying of some day names

2003-22-05

Version 2.2

fixed error message typo

2002-12-09

Version 2.1

bugfix: some months are not printed if '-3' is used

optimization of counting menstruation days

2002-03-29

Version 2.0

initial primitive version total rewrited

more configurations available

merging of configurations

other program switches

non-colored output

actual three months can be printed

2000-10-25

Version 1.1

configuration can be saved

minor bigfixes

localization (use of locales)

Mesozoic era

Version 1.0

initial primitive version

I thank Vinil for the his intensive cooperation, inspiration and
propagation (the hint on the homepage is from him too) and JD for
testing, moral backing and correction.

An inspiring response from the maintainer of the mencal Debian package:

I really love this script, because nobody but you ever bothered
writing it :-) I am very proud of you because you wrote this for
your girlfriend and I guess that was an act of love :-)

Thankful letter from Luca Sironi:

Thank you for mencal! I use your script in order to track in red
my work nightly emergency availability.
The maximum will be an integration with the calendar unix command.
Some kind of writable text on the right of the month calendar ;-)

An amazing reply from Thomas Long:

My wife and I rely on your program every time we need to plan big things
like trips, vacations, extended bike rides, etc. Your program is a really
wonderful contribution to Debian GNU/Linux. In the US, it is not unusual for
women to be very embarrassed about menstruation - even to the point that
they will not use the word. My wife is that way. But she has no problem
saying things like, "MenCal's here!" :)

Peace be with you.

A bit unconventional usage of the program from Holger Mikolon:

Thanks for the practical tool mencal, which I use on my OpenBSD laptop
for the purpose to highlighting the current day of month. I use the
following command line to do that:mencal -m -q -c l=31,d=1